07.09.2020 NaDiMa Dialogue #3 | Droughts, Sand & Dust Storms: Challenges and Management | 23rd September 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 CET

“May Ahura Mazda protect this land, this nation, from rancor, from foes, from falsehood and from Drought.”

Dariush the Great (550 B.C.), King of the Iranian (Persian) Achaemenid Empire

Iran has been experiencing long cycles of drought for the last 50 years. According to the Iranian Energy Minister “334 cities with 35 million people across Iran are currently struggling with water stress”. The UN Development Program Resident Representative in Iran, Gary Lewis, also acknowledges the crisis: “The water shortage is currently Iran’s most important humanitarian challenge,”. In recent years, the water shortage and drought in Iran have caused substantial economic costs, several social issues, health problems, and violent conflicts (Farzanegan et al., 2019).

In the third NaDiMa Dialogue, we focus on droughts, dust and sand storms with references to Iran and Central Asia. Following a brief introduction to the NaDiMa project by Professor Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan (CNMS, School of Business & Economics in Marburg), our panel of experts from Iran and Germany with moderation of Dr. Aliakbar Nazari (Associate Professor in Geomorphology and Soil Erosion at Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran) will elaborate different aspects of drought, sand and dust storm challenges.

Our panel of speakers includes Professors Dr. Opp (Professor of Physical Geography, Head of Working Group Hydro-Geography and Soil Geography, University of Marburg), Dr. Malekian (Associate Professor in Hydrology and Water Resources Management at Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran) and Dr. Abbasi (Assistant Professor, Research Institute of Forest and Rangeland in Tehran).

NaDiMa Dialogue #3 presents a 'meeting point' for economists, geographers and environmental experts, promoting an interdisciplinary discussion about our critical natural hazards.

Posters of NaDiMa Dialogue #3 are available in English and Persian.

Introduction: 

Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Professor of Economics of the Middle East, Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg 

Mohammad Farzanegan is Professor of Economics of the Middle East at Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) & School of Business and Economics at Philipps-Universität Marburg. He gained his PhD in Economics from TU Dresden (2009) and was the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow from 2010-2012. His fields of research are political economy and empirical development economics with reference to the Middle East/Iran.

Moderator:

Aliakbar Nazari Samani, Associate Professor  of Geomorphology and Soil Erosion, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran 

Aliakbar Nazari Samani is an associate professor of Geomorphology and Soil Erosion at the University of Tehran. His scientific works are mostly on geomorphic-hazards processes and its application on the watershed management. He has a several national and international cooperation for scientific programs in soil erosion and has published articles in national and International Journals. He also is an adjunct member of the Academy of Sciences of I.R Iran. Currently he is teaching and doing research at the faculty of Natural Resources and mostly focused on wind erosion and dust emission processes.

Speakers:

Christian Opp, Professor for Physical Geography, Head of Department of Hydrology and Soil Science, Philipps-Universität Marburg

Topic of presentation: Causes and Consequences of Sand and Dust Storms - Experiences from Central Asia and other Regions

Christian Opp is Professor of Physical Geography and Head of the Working Group Hydro-Geography and Soil Geography at Philipps-Universität Marburg. His reserach focuses on Hydrology, Desertification, Water Management in dryland areas, Dust storm and dust deposition monitoring and Environmental analysis of water bodies and soils. His research experience includes Germany, Central Asia and Iran among others.

Arash Malekian, Associate professor of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran

Topic of presentation: Drought and Socio-Economic Aspects in Iran: Challenges and Opportunities

Arash Malekian is an associate professor at the University of Tehran, Iran. As the adjunct member of the Academy of Sciences of I.R Iran, his research, teaching and extension interests are hydrology and water resources management, climate change mitigation, policy and decision-making. He is the author and co-author of several international publications and he has served as the former advisor of the international office at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, former head of department and former international advisor of Science and Technology Park of the University of Tehran. He has also organized international workshops, conferences and summer schools.

Hamidreza Abbasi, Assistant Professor, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran

Topic of presentation: The Environmental Problems of Sand and Dust Storms in Iran

Dr. Hamidreza Abbasi is a senior researcher in the Desert Research Division at Research Institute Forests and Ranglands Iran. His research encompasses a range of Natural resource applications, including desertification, wind erosion, dust and sand storms, drylands, Physio-chemical soils in desert ecosystem, as well as land-use planning in dust and sand sources, and sand dunes stabilization. He recently published new sand dunes maps and dunes activity classification in Iran and Afghanistan. Currently, he is responsible for a national project in relation to monitoring dust sources in Iran. He will speak on the topic of "The Environmental Problems of Sand and Dust Storms in Iran".

The panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A session. 

Time and Place: Wednesday, 23rd September 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 CET

How to join: The online Dialogue is free, but you must register to attend. You can register here

The platform for this Dialogue is Adobe connect which can be accessed via browser or desktop app.